Propane?

[Ol' Chevy]

Howdy,
Is anyone out there running propane instead of gasoline? I had a guy tell me that there is a kit that will let you run either gas or propane through a regular carb. He said it would nearly triple my fuel mileage. Anyone know anything about this?

[dieseldawg142]

my sister's blazer was propane powered. used more than gas, but propane is everywhere up here & cheaper than gas. only thing, was hard to start in the winter unless you dumped warm water over the mixer. it was an Impco mixer that could run on both, but it ran crappy on gas. my boss has a propane truck (impco) & an ex-taxi with a Raso conversion kit
http://autoparts.rasoenterprises.com/,
this is probably what you heard about. as for fuel mileage tripling-forget it, strait up BS. propane has less thermal btu's than gas. if you go 15 miles on a gallon of gas, you will only go 9-10 miles on the same amount of propane

[wilkin250r]

Everything I've ever read says you'll get LESS miles from a gallon of propane, so your actual "Miles Per Gallon" will decrease anywhere from 10 to 30%

However, because propane is significantly cheaper, your "miles per dollar" will go up.

[wilkin250r]

This brings up a host of questions.

Gasoline has a bunch of taxes added to it, sometimes as much as 65 cents per gallon. I can't imagine the Gasoline Industry just sitting calmly twiddling their thumbs while they get 65 cents added to their product, but propane doesn't. They're going to make the arguement that transportation taxes should be added to ANY fuel used for transportation purposes.

So I see a possible separation, fuel used for your BBQ will have one price, fuel for your vehicle will have another price. If it's not happening already, it's quite possibly on the horizon.

[Redcap]

Originally Posted by wilkin250r

This brings up a host of questions.

Gasoline has a bunch of taxes added to it, sometimes as much as 65 cents per gallon. I can't imagine the Gasoline Industry just sitting calmly twiddling their thumbs while they get 65 cents added to their product, but propane doesn't. They're going to make the arguement that transportation taxes should be added to ANY fuel used for transportation purposes.

So I see a possible separation, fuel used for your BBQ will have one price, fuel for your vehicle will have another price. If it's not happening already, it's quite possibly on the horizon.

The amount of people that actually use LPG as a on-road fuel is so small that I doubt anyone will ever worry about it.

The price is making me consider a dual-fuel setup for my K20, though.

[dieseldawg142]

there is quite a few lpg vehicles floating around up here, our govt. gives a $750 rebate to convert your new vehicle to straight propane. a lot of R.V., fleet & fork lifts running it.only real problem converting to lpg with a carb, hard to get it to run satisfactory on both fuels (lpg, 110ish octane, leaner air/fuel, 14-16:1). F.I. & propane conversions run on both no problem.

you would have to drive a lot on propane to recoup your money, new conversions are around $1500 up, a used one (rare, but they come up) $500-$1000

[obijuan]

I run propane on my bbc. I use an impco 452 and a model e. Fuel consumption has always been bad. When it quits runnin youre out. I have two forklift propane tanks behind the seat and can just switch tanks. One wire to run it so it extremely simple. Runs upside down if youre into that.
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[andrewmp6]

What about running e85?A e85 carb replace the rubber fuel lines for ones rated for e85 a tune sounds cheaper then a propane kit to me.

[Redcap]

Originally Posted by andrewmp6

What about running e85?A e85 carb replace the rubber fuel lines for ones rated for e85 a tune sounds cheaper then a propane kit to me.

I wouldn't even bother with E85.